AEHS Study Day: Health, Illness, and the Witness of the Church

The annual Anglican Episcopal House of Studies (AEHS) Study Day offers clergy, other ministry professionals, and students the chance to learn and reflect on a substantial topic relating to theology and ministry. It is usually led by an Anglican/Episcopal member of the Divinity School faculty. Framed by the Daily Office, the majority of the day is given to a plenary presentation by the speaker so that a subject can be explored in some depth.

The 8th annual AEHS Study Day, “Health, Illness, and the Witness of the Church,” will be led by Warren Kinghorn and Farr Curlin. This event is open to both clergy and laity.

Topics include:

A theological framework for health and medicine

Care for the dying

Mental health

Professors Kinghorn and Curlin write, “Matters of health and illness regularly arise in the life of every congregation, and often pastors are called to accompany parishioners into the complex worlds of medicine and healthcare. But what does it look like to do this faithfully? All of us depend on modern healthcare in some way, but when serious illness arises, it is sometimes hard to tell when the medical system is helpful and when it is only contributing to further suffering and confusion.

"As physicians and co-directors of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School, we believe that the Church and Christian faith should matter for the way that Christians engage health, illness, and medicine. In the 2016 AEHS Study Day, we look forward to engaging health and illness from a theological perspective. Specifically, we will explore how the Church can faithfully walk alongside people facing life-threatening illness and imminent death, and (with our colleague, the Rev. Karen Barfield) how the Church can faithfully walk alongside people facing depression and other forms of serious mental illness."

Professor Farr Curlin is a hospice and palliative care physician who joined Duke University in January 2014 and holds joint appointments in the School of Medicine, including its Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine, and in Duke Divinity School, including its Initiative on Theology, Medicine and Culture.

Professor Warren Kinghorn is a psychiatrist whose work centers on the role of religious communities in caring for persons with mental health problems and on ways in which Christians engage practices of modern health care. Jointly appointed within Duke Divinity School and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Duke University Medical Center, he is also a staff psychiatrist and clinical teacher at the Durham VA Medical Center.

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Registration

Registration fee: $65.00
AEHS Alumni: $40.00
Parking: $6.00

Registration includes lunch and all study materials. Registration closes April 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Clergy of the diocese of North Carolina may apply to the School of Ministry for a scholarship. To register you will still need to pay the full amount, a portion of which may be reimbursed in cases of need. Contact Shelley Kappauf at the School of Ministry at (336) 273-5770.